[david118383]

Every so often when I am watching a DVD, the dialogue will completely drop out of my center channel. I still get sound out of my other four speakers but nothing from the center channel. This problem didn't occur until about a month or two ago. Could my dvd player be the problem? If I turn off the dvd player and the receiver and then turn them back on the problem is usually fixed for a while. I am using the Liteon LVD-2001 with a Yamaha HTR-5560. The Liteon gives me a great picture via the 1080i upconvert but it has some problems such as loading and ejecting discs which makes me think that it might be the problem.

 

[rynberg]

Have you verified that the digital audio cable is working properly?

 

[Rachael Bellomy]

If you're using a digital audio connection for the player, I would suspect an audio problem in the reciever or speaker wire bad connection, firstly. It's hard to think the player would only lose centre channel information from the digital stream, it would be strange if true.

 

[david118383]

is it possible that my optical cable is the problem? It is a cheap one that I bought on eBay for about $5.

 

[Bob Pariseau]

david118383,

It is possible, that what you are hearing is due to a faulty optical cable or even to a bit of dust that needs to be blown out of the optical socket at one end or the other. The cheap optical cable may be reducing signal level to the point where your receiver is only barely able to keep a lock on the digital signal. However, usually the symptom for this would be loss of more than one channel.


It's certainly worth checking with a better grade of optical cable and a can of clean compressed air of the type used to blow stuff off of electronics circuits. You didn't mention cable length, but optical cables shouldn't be very long either.


If that doesn't fix it, I would first suspect you have a problem with the center channel output stage in your receiver -- particularly since it is fixed temporarily by power cycling. Make sure your center channel speaker cables are properly connected and properly separated at each end so that there is no chance of them occassionally shorting against each other. Make sure your receiver (and DVD player) are placed where they have proper ventilation so that you don't have an issue with the electronics overheating. Double check that the Ohm rating of your center channel speaker is a proper match for what your receiver is expecting so that you don't put undue strain on the amplifier for that channel.


If you have, or can borrow, a different source device with optical audio output -- a friend's DVD player or an HDTV receiver for example -- you would be able to isolate whether the problem is generated in your player or in your receiver.

--Bob